Dan 9:1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
Dan 9:2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

The prayer of Daniel. Introduction: Daniel's occasion to pray: Daniel understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord; this prayer was prompted by Daniel's study of prophecy. He also understood prophecy literally; to Daniel, seventy years meant seventy years. Daniel saw the captivity would be for 70 years from Jeremiah 25:11-13 and 29:10.

If Daniel knew that God had said the captivity would be for 70 years; and if he believed God's Word would be fulfilled, why did he pray that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem? One reason is that God's promises invite, not exclude, our participation: "Nothing, therefore, can be better for us, than to ask for what he has promised." (Calvin)  2 Peter 3:12 indicates that there is a sense in which we can hasten the Lord's coming by our holy conduct and godly lives; we can also hasten the Lord's coming through evangelism because Paul says that God's prophetic focus on Israel will resume when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25); we can also hasten the Lord's coming through prayer, even as Daniel asked for a speedy fulfillment of prophecy regarding captive Israel (Daniel 9), we can also pray Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20) If you want Jesus to come soon, there is something you can do about it!

But a second, important reason is that Daniel prayed that God, in His mercy, would take the earliest of all possible starting points (Daniel's abduction) for determining the beginning of the 70 years. There were three "waves" of captivity - 605 BC (Daniel's), 597 BC, and 587 BC. If God takes the earliest starting point to determine the 70 years, then His mercy comes to Israel 18 years earlier. At the time, Daniel was still three or four years short of seventy years since 605 BC; but it was not too soon to begin praying. Daniel was not uniquely qualified for a ministry of intercession; he did not belong to a priestly family, and he was not in the ordinary sense a prophet like Isaiah and Ezekiel. Yet he, like all of us, could pray. "Too often our interest in the prophetic Scriptures is of a curious and speculative nature, or else we conclude that God will carry out His sovereign purpose no matter what we do, and so we do not concern ourselves with those matters." But even in God's eternal decrees, human agencies are essential: Jeremiah made a prophecy; Daniel made a prayer; Cyrus made a proclamation.

Dan 9:3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

The attitude of his prayer: earnestness, humility and mourning. Daniel was determined to do what ever it took to get this job done in prayer; he "left nothing undone that might possibly make his prayer more effective or more persuasive."

Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
Dan 9:5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Dan 9:6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spoke in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
Dan 9:7 O Lord, righteousness [belongeth] unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, [that are] near, and [that are] far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
Dan 9:8 O Lord, to us [belongeth] confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
Dan 9:9 To the Lord our God [belong] mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
Dan 9:10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
Dan 9:11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that [is] written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
Dan 9:12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
Dan 9:13 As [it is] written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
Dan 9:14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God [is] righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
Dan 9:15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

Daniel confesses the sin of his people, and glorifies the goodness and righteousness of God. Daniel begins where we all should: by recognizing the greatness and goodness of God. Sometimes we approach God as a stingy person why has to be persuaded to give us something. But Daniel knows the problem is not with God; He keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him. When Daniel confesses, he prays as if he were as bad as the rest of Israel; it is a confession of we, not "they." "They" prayers never really see God; genuine we prayers have caught a glimpse of Him. Daniel's confession of sin might seem phony, until we realize who passionately he is occupying himself with God; compared to him, we are all bozos on the same bus.

Daniel knew that Israel's sin was not God's fault; God was utterly righteous and blameless. Any shame of face belonged to Israel, not to God. Daniel does not make the slightest excuse for Israel's sin. The fault belongs to Israel and Israel alone. We love to make excuses for our sin, and often do, even in our "confessions". Remember that either it is sin or it isn't. If it is sin, there is no excuse. If there is an excuse, there is no sin - and why are you confessing at all? He has confirmed His words . . . As it is written in the Law of Moses; Daniel realizes that God, even in His judgment against Israel, has been totally faithful to His word. He promised that curses would come upon a disobedient Israel (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). As Daniel prays, he remembers that the Lord brought Your people out of the land of Egypt. The Old Testament "standard" of God's power was the deliverance from Egypt; the New Testament "standard" is the resurrection of Jesus (Ephesians 1:19-20).

Dan 9:16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people [are become] a reproach to all [that are] about us.
Dan 9:17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
Dan 9:18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
Dan 9:19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

What Daniel wants God to do: as he calls upon the mercy of God, he asks God to forgive and to restore Jerusalem. Daniel prays on firm New Testament ground: we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. Daniel's confidence isn't that he is so good, but because God is so good. This is what it means to pray in the name of Jesus; those aren't words we tack on to the end of a prayer, but they should express the fact we are praying in merits and righteousness of Jesus, not our own. What is he asking for? That God would mercifully turn His kind attention to Jerusalem and the temple (cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary), and that God would do this without delay (Do not delay for your own sake). This is a fitting prayer to pray when we see God's modern sanctuary - His people - are in a bad state.

The purpose of Daniel's prayer is to see God's work accomplished and His cause glorified; it is all because Your city and Your people are called by Your name. A great secret to effective prayer is truly praying to see God's will done, not ours.

Dan 9:20 And whiles I [was] speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
Dan 9:21 Yea, whiles I [was] speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

Gabriel comes to bring an answer to Daniel's prayer. Daniel's prayer is interrupted by an angelic visit. This is one of the few places where we are told that angels fly; Gabriel came quickly because there is no great distance between heaven and earth. The time of the evening offering was a special time; this was when Moses offered the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:6); when Jesus was crucified (Matthew 27:45). As a young man in Jerusalem, Daniel would see the smoke from the temple arising every afternoon, indicating the evening oblation.

Dan 9:22 And he informed [me], and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
Dan 9:23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show [thee]; for thou [art] greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

Gabriel announces that he has come to bring Daniel an answer to his prayer. Daniel is greatly beloved, just like the apostle John (John 13:23), both recipients of amazing prophetic messages.

Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Daniel is given the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Seventy weeks are determined for the Jews and Jerusalem. What are seventy weeks? It is almost universally agreed that this refers to seventy sets of seven years, or "weeks of years". Israel was just as familiar with a unit of seven years as they were of a unit of seven days; there is nothing unusual in the way this is presented. The seventy weeks focused upon Daniel's people (the Jews) and his holy city (Jerusalem). Unless the church has become Israel, it is not in view here; Talbot calls the seventy weeks "God's calendar for Israel"; it has nothing to do with the Gentiles or with the church.

God promises that certain things will be accomplished in this period of seventy weeks:

a. To finish transgression: taken literally, this is the establishment of an entirely new order on earth; the ending of man's rebellion against God.

b. To put an end to sins: not merely the guilt of sin, but the sin itself; it looks to a new world.

c. To make reconciliation for iniquity: this was clearly fulfilled at the cross.

d. To bring in everlasting righteousness: a new order of society brought in by the Messiah.

e. To seal up vision and prophecy: concluding the final stage of human history, when the Son of Man rules; "it must include his enthronement".

f. To anoint the most holy: literally, this refers to a place, not a person; likely, to the millennial temple of Ezekiel 40-44.

g. All this is promised to happen in the period of the seventy weeks; but it all can hardly be said to have happened already.

Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

The course and dividing of the seventy weeks. When do the seventy weeks begin? There are four possible decrees which might fulfill verse 25; most commentators narrow it down to either Artexerxes' decree in 458 BC (Ezra 7:11-26) or his decree in 445 BC (Nehemiah 2:1-8). There are also decrees by Cyrus in 538 BC, recorded by Ezra in 1:1-4 and 5:13-17; to rebuild the temple, and by Darius in 517 BC, recorded in Ezra 6:6-12; another decree to rebuild the temple. But these were not decrees to restore and build Jerusalem. The seventy weeks are divided into three parts; seven weeks (49 years, until the city and its walls are rebuilt), sixty-two weeks (483 years from the decree, until Messiah the Prince), and a final 70th week (to complete the picture). We are not given much detail, but probably the first seven weeks are set aside because it was during then that the streets and walls of Jerusalem were finished being rebuilt.

Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

What happens after the first sixty-nine weeks are completed - after the sixty-two weeks. Some say the completion came at Jesus' birth (5 or 4 BC); there is little chronological support for this date. Some say it was His baptism, the beginning of Jesus' ministry (if dated at 26 AD); this is possible if one begins with the earlier decree of Artaxerxes, and figures with normal solar years. Some say it was Jesus' triumphal entry (if dated at 32 AD); Sir Robert Anderson's The Coming Prince follows this argument in detail. Anderson, using a 360-day year (which Israel used in Daniel's day), calculates 173,880 days from the decree to the triumphal entry, fulfilling the prophecy to the day. The year 32 AD (based on Luke 3:1) for Jesus' death is controversial (most chronologists favor 30 or 33 AD); but recent attempts have made some case for the date: "A recent article attempts to give credence to the date of. A.D. 32; cf. R.E. Showers, Grace Journal, XI (Winter, 1970), pp. 30ff. The evidence presented is worthy of notice."

"No one today is able dogmatically to declare that Sir Robert Anderson's computations are impossible."

Some have argued that the first sixty-nine weeks end at the exact time of the crucifixion. After the 69 weeks are completed, the Messiah is cut off (a term that is sometimes used for execution [Genesis 9:11; Exodus 31:14]); but He will be cut off for the sake of others, not because of Himself. After the Messiah is cut off, Jerusalem is destroyed (this was fulfilled in 70 AD) by the people of the prince who is to come.

Desolations are determined: a chilling description of Jewish history since their rejection of Jesus as Messiah.

The events of the seventieth week. The prince who is to come is not specifically revealed to us here (though he matches with the little horn of Daniel 7:8, 20, 24-27), but his people are: they are the people who put Jesus to death in a human legal sense, the Romans. Therefore, the prince who is to come will in some way be an heir to the Romans, even as the final world government is an heir to the Roman Empire. He (the prince who is to come) confirms a covenant with [the] many (Israel) for the final seven year period; but he breaks the treaty in the middle of the seven years. The book of Revelation sees this seven year period, with both its halves, as yet future (Revelation 12:6, 13-14; 13:5-9, 14-15). It had not yet happened in 90 AD. Because all the things that God promised would happen in the seventy weeks (verse 24) have not yet happened, we know that the seventy weeks have not yet been completed. Yet, apparently, there is a "pause" in the seventy weeks, between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth week - since the Jewish rejection of Jesus, and now ready to begin again when the Antichrist shall confirm a covenant with the Jews.

With this covenant, Israel probably embraces the Antichrist as a political messiah, if not the literal Messiah. This was predicted by Jesus in John 5:43: I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. It is as if God has appointed 490 years of special focus on Israel in His redemptive plan; the years were "paused" by Israel's rejection of Jesus. Now, there is no special focus on Israel in God's redemptive plan (this is the time of the church), but there will be when the church is taken away (at the rapture) and God returns His special focus on Israel again for the last seven years of man's rule on this earth. "The 70th week will begin when the Jewish people are restored in unbelief to their land and city; and among them will be found a faithful remnant, owning their sin, and seeking Jehovah's face." (Ironside in 1911). These "gaps" or "pauses" in prophecy may seem strange to us, but they are somewhat typical (Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1:31-33).

He will bring an end to sacrifice, and establish an abomination (idol) which will bring desolation; Jesus (Matthew 24:15) and Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) thought this event (the abomination of desolation) essential in understanding prophecy. This is when the Antichrist "turns" on the Jews half way through the last seven-year period, described well in Revelation 12:6, 13-17. However, God has a consummation, which will make all His enemies desolate. No doubt about it: God wins.

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel

Interpreted by Sir Robert Anderson

From the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the King (according to Daniel 9:24-25) will be:

7 + 62 "weeks" = 69 groups of seven years

7 x 69 = 483 years

Anderson sees a prophetic year as 360 days (based on Revelation 11:2, 13:5 and 11:3, 12:6 which indicates that 42 months [3.5] years equals 1,260 days)

483 x 360 = 173,880 days

Artaxerxes started his reign in 465 B.C. The decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given on the first day of Nisan, in the 20th year of Artaxerxes. In our calendar system (the Julian) that date is March 14, 445 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1).

Jesus started His ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius (see Luke 3:1).

Tiberius started his reign in 14 A.D., so Jesus' ministry started in 29 A.D. Anderson believes that Jesus celebrated four Passovers during His ministry: one each in 29, 30, 31 and His final Passover in 32. The date of ancient Passovers can be calculated by lunar charts, so it is possible to calculate the exact day of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem as April 6, 32 A.D.

From 445 B.C. to 32 A.D. is 476 Julian years

(not 477, because there is no year 0).

476 x 365 = 173,740 days

Adjustment: from March 14 to April 6, add 24 days

Adjustment: for leap years in the period, add 116 days

The total number of days from March 14, 445 B.C.

to April 6, 32 A.D.: 173,880 days

Number of days prophesied in Daniel 9:25: 173,880 days

Jesus said to the Jews of this day: If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! (Luke 19:42). David said of this day in Psalm 118:24: This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.